Independent Music Promotion on the Web: 3 Steps to Success

Written by Nick Hooper

Continued from page 1

Provide a link on your website and newsletters to all of sites you use to promote your music. Remember your website visitors are your hardcore web fans and are most likely to check out and spread word about your spot on other websites. So encourage them to visit your profile on other websites. At very least it raises your stats on those websites - making your music look more popular!

Try to create a ring of sites that link to each other though content you supply. For example, you might have your music on your own website and two other showcase sites - Site A and Site B. Your site should without a doubt link with Site A and Site B. Site A should link with your site and Site B, Site B should link with your site and Site A and so on. What if these sites don't allow you to setup links to other sites? Put a web address in areas where they do allow you to supply content. Like biogs or descriptions.

The ultimate aim of linking all your sites is to provide your listeners with a variety of access points to your music, as well as access to different ways various sites may deliver your music. Remember to link to your specific page on site and not just site itself. Your site linked with a site that play your tracks on Internet radio, linked with a site that sells your downloads, linked with a site that sells your CD's provides for a powerful combination of exposure.

Be Rich

Without money! That is challenge that most independent artists face. The conventional approach to selling music is that it should not be too readily available to listen to, should incentive for listeners to actually buy albums be undermined. This has persuaded independent artists that they should limit web listeners to low-quality snippets of streaming audio.

Independent artists have to remember they don't have resources and finances to support "shotgun approach" of spraying their music across radio and music television. Big artists have big companies behind them that need to recoup costs of mass media exposure, and therefore try to limit extent to which listeners can sample their music on web. Listeners have already heard music and are trying to find a copy of their own.

Conversely, listeners haven't had a chance to listen to independent artist through conventional media. Therefore independent artists can't assume that people will buy their music off of a website if they don't get a chance to really listen to it. If people have already heard an artist's music, and like it, value they pay for is in owning a copy they can play whenever they like. If people have not already heard an artist's music, value is in being able to sample as much of music as possible.

So being rich is providing your listeners with as much of your music as they want to listen to before they buy it. Now you don't have to make all your tracks available for free download, but you can provide good quality, full-length streams that impress listener and enhance your sound. Not tight-fisted snippets that lose listener because they are lo-fi and over before they attract listener's interest.

Being rich is also making your music available in a variety of formats for different audiences. Telling fans that your music can be heard via Internet radio, on-demand streams, mp3 downloads and mail order CD means you can appeal to listeners who prefer more than one type of media. You can also use your web promotion to go beyond simply plays and sales - consider licensing.

Licensing your music for use with television, film, advertising, websites, video games and other multimedia will open up your listening audience, provide revenue and introduce a degree of professionalism to your career that attracts notice of industry reps and A&R. Adding this depth to your web promotion helps to enrich presentation of your music and retain targeted listeners.

So remember: a) maximise your targeted listeners, b) be systematic in obtaining them, and c) retain them by making sure your own site and other sites are rich in content.

Nick Hooper has helped to create Tunetrader, an online platform for independent music promotion at http://www.tunetrader.com.

Near end of your interview, recap and gently probe to ensure interviewer has understood your main points. Many of them are adept at making it sound as if they know whatís going on. Sometimes they donít. Judge too, by questions they ask, whether they are absorbing your information properly. Trust your instincts Ė if you fear reporter may be misunderstanding, act firmly and proactively to set interview straight. It's better to do this now than when itís already on air or in print.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.